Six arrested in Montagna slaying

Paul Cherry, The Gazette12.21.2011

Raynald Desjardins is escorted into SQ headquarters Tuesday after his arrest in connection with the Nov. 24 shooting death of Salvatore Montagna, who was killed in Ile Vaudry, a small island south of the municipality of Charlemagne, near Repentigny. Police say Montagna was attempting to take over the mafia in Montreal.RADIO-CANADA
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Multiple police forces raided the house at 107 Bellevue St. in Laval on Tuesday after the SQ arrested five suspects in connection with the death of Salvatore Montagna.Dave Sidaway
/ The Gazette

Multiple police forces raided the house at 107 Bellevue St. in Laval on Tuesday after the SQ arrested five suspects in connection with the death of Salvatore Montagna.Dave Sidaway
/ The Gazette

This woman was allowed to pick up some personal belongings when multiple police forces raided the house at 107 Bellevue St. in Laval on Tuesday after the SQ arrested five suspects in connection with the death of Salvatore Montagna.Dave Sidaway
/ The gazette

The casket containing the body of Salvatore Montagna is carried to a hearse after his funeral in Montreal in November.Pierre Obendrauf
/ Gazette files

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MONTREAL - The arrest of six men in the killing of Salvatore Montagna, who police believe was pushing for control of the Mafia in Montreal, sheds some light on what transpired within the highest levels of the crime organization in recent months.

Raynald Desjardins, 57, of Laval, by far the most significant of Tuesday’s arrests, is expected to be charged with five others Wednesday with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Montagna, 40.

The two men were believed to have been part of a small group of men who tried to reach a consensus over who should assume control of the Mafia.

The fragile collective apparently fell apart when someone tried to kill Desjardins near his home in Laval on Sept. 16.

Desjardins was not injured in the ambush, but his bodyguard – Jonathan Mignacca – was charged with discharging a firearm as he allegedly returned gunfire.

Montagna was shot to death on Nov. 24 inside or as he exited a home on Île Vaudry, a small island just east of Montreal.

The home belongs to Jack Arthur Simpson, 69, who is serving a 28-year sentence for trafficking cocaine.

Simpson, who was arrested in Ottawa for a parole violation a few days after Montagna was killed, is now to be charged with plotting to kill Montagna, the Sûreté du Québec said Tuesday.

Montagna is a former head of the Bonanno crime family in New York. He was deported to Canada in 2009 when U.S. authorities realized he wasn’t an American citizen.

In the weeks leading to the attempt on Desjardins’s life, police sources told The Gazette that Montagna appeared to be seeking control over what remained of the Rizzuto clan in Montreal, which had been controlled by Vito Rizzuto and his octogenarian father, Nicolo.

The younger Rizzuto is serving a 10-year sentence in the U.S., which ends in October 2012. His father was killed in his Montreal home in November 2010.

Police sources were surprised at what was perceived to have been Desjardins’s initial support of Montagna, who had few ties to Montreal’s underworld.

Desjardins was once described as Vito Rizzuto’s right-hand man, and the two men were practically neighbours during the 1980s.

His loyalty to the Rizzuto clan is believed to have led Desjardins to become the fall guy in Project Jaggy, an

RCMP investigation that uncovered a conspiracy between members of the Mafia and the Hells Angels to smuggle cocaine into Canada.

On Oct. 24, 1994, Desjardins received a 15-year sentence in the conspiracy, which appeared to involve Vito Rizzuto even though he was never charged.

Desjardins was released in 2004, but not before causing Correctional Service Canada headaches while behind bars. According to a 1997 decision by the National Parole Board, he was investigated as the instigator in plots to kill two fellow inmates and a conspiracy to poison staff food at his penitentiary.

At a news conference after Tuesday’s arrests, the SQ appeared to acknowledge Desjardins’s significant role in organized crime.

“We see that we have come to deliver a harsh blow to organized crime and more particularly to Italian organized crime,” SQ Inspector Roberto Bergeron said.

“It is another step toward our objective, which is above all to destabilize the organizations related to organized crime and to ensure public safety.”

Bergeron would not go into details about the motive behind Montagna’s killing, but acknowledged it involved two groups embroiled in a conflict.

He said investigators believe Montagna was taken to Simpson’s home before he was killed. Montagna’s vehicle was later found parked on a Montreal street.

SQ Inspector Michel Forget described the men arrested Tuesday as “key players” in organized crime.

“In general terms, our efforts are not done. What you’re seeing here is a major piece of the puzzle, but we’re still going to undertake many more actions in the future.”

Forget would not comment when he was asked whether the SQ believes Montagna’s killing is linked to the attempt on Desjardins’s life.

Two others – Vittorio Mirarchi, 34, of Ste. Adèle, and Felice Racaniello, 27, of Montreal – are to be charged in Montagna’s death.

The names of two other arrested men were not released.

According to court records, Mirarchi and Racaniello have never been convicted of a crime.

The Sûreté du Québec, with the support of other police forces, carried out search warrants at 16 locations, including at Desjardins’s home in Laval on the shore of the Rivière des Prairies.

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